Commentary Imagine a society with no property rights: No law or officer of the law would prohibit you or punish you for taking whatever you want from whomever you want. Such a society would be chaotic, hostile, and poor. In such a dog-eat-dog scenario, all but the most powerful and their allies would have little more than what they could carry with them or what they could successfully hide. They could try to hide things in a house, but without property rights, marauders would break in and take whatever they can find. In fact, the marauders might even take possession of the house itself if they have numbers and weaponry sufficient to expel the previous occupants. Even then, they wouldn’t be secure. Either a mightier or more ruthless character might come along and seize the dwelling, or some sore loser resentful of having been displaced from the house might decide …